Sweet Potato Bites
I can't let a fall season pass by without some representation of my favorite seasonal spud, the sweet potato! This year's incarnation are these sweet potato bites, and they came about from a couple different influences. My mom made a similar dish for a Thanksgiving meal a couple years ago that had roasted sweet potatoes adorned with goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, and rosemary. So I took that as a starting point, but changed things up so the end result would be even more suited to my own tastes with a multi-cheese mixture, seasoned pecans, dried cranberries, thyme, and rosemary.
Since the inspiration for this recipe came from a Thanksgiving meal, I had that holiday on my mind and decided to make a variation of the Union Square Cafe's bar nuts recipe, which is something I make every Thanksgiving. This is my favorite nut recipe with strong showings from brown sugar, rosemary, and cayenne giving the nuts an addictive flavor. Since I wanted rosemary to be represented as a finishing herb, I decided to omit it from the nuts here and added in cinnamon since it felt like that spice would go nicely in the final creation.
The cheese was a crucial element in those sweet potato bites, but goat cheese alone felt a bit overpowering with its strong tangy flavor. So originally I was going to swap the goat cheese in favor of the much milder ricotta, but while out shopping, goat cheese logs where on sale, so I pick one up and ended up mixing it in with ricotta along with a bit of black pepper too. I think that was the right direction because I got a little of that tanginess, but in a creamier and more mellow manner that allowed all the ingredients to stand their own ground in the end.
I wasn't quite sure how many sweet potatoes I was going to need, so I loaded up with six giant ones, which was a little overboard. I ended up getting between six and eight quarter-inch slices out of each spud, and there were so many slices in the end that it would have taken three rounds of cooking to grill them all. So to make the cooking more manageable, after oiling and seasoning the spuds, I put as many as I could fit on the grill, and then did another couple trays in a 452°F oven since I was short on time.
I probably could have done two rounds on the grill though because they only took about twenty minutes over indirect high heat to soften and brown as desired. Once the first round was done, there was still plenty of heat left in the coals to have done another batch, and depending on how big your grill and/or potatoes are, you will likely need two rounds of grilling to get through them all in the recipe as written.
I see doing two batches of cooking as an advantage though because these taste great at room temperature, and you can also top the first round while the second grills. I did three big platters of sweet potatoes at once and it took a bit of time to first spread on a layer of the cheese mixture, then sprinkle on the chopped pecans, followed by dried cranberries, rosemary, and thyme. However, that was time well spent because these went over really well. The sweetness of the potatoes, which feels so fitting in fall, got a good counter balance from the slightly spicy nuts and tangy cheese. The cranberries injected another layer of sweetness and tartness, while the herbs elevated the overall seasonal feel. Having the final dish work well both warm and at room temperature was also key because these were able to sit out all day, ready for whenever anyone felt like grabbing one, and tasted as good when first put out and hours later too.
